YouTuber Sells Shares in Himself Online, Makes $490,000 in One Week

(Reuters) On the surface, Japan’s newest stock exchange platform, Valu, may seem like an innovative game changer in that it allows users to sell shares in themselves. That being said, however, there is at least one kink the company still needs to iron out if they wish to take Valu to the next level – keeping stock buyers from being conned by those just looking to make a quick buck at others’ expense. Which is exactly what happened this week when a Japanese Youtuber who goes by the name of Hikaru exploited one of Valu’s features to basically cash out on his popularity. While the concept of selling stocks in oneself may seem very similar to basic crowdfunding, Valu also allows the trading of tokens called “VA” between those who list them, and the tokens are also exchangeable with bitcoin. So Hikaru used his popularity to boost the price of his stocks, and then sold them at a huge profit.

I’ll admit, the only thing I remember about Wolf of Wall Street is that Matthew McConaughey jacks off a lot. However, based on my limited knowledge of the NYSE combined with what I know about YouTubers, I’m pretty sure that this Japanese Jake Paul is undercutting the market on himself. That’s right, just another example of how advantageous it is to sell yourself short in Eastern culture. And by doing so, this young man Hikaru has made himself half a million dollars in one week. But before we congratulate him, let’s address the elephant in the room.

Is selling yourself a form of human trafficking? Yes. It seems that way. However, that does not necessarily make it evil. Just look at peaceful protest for example. Although annoying to drivers, our own forefathers battled tooth and nail for this type of human traffic. So, through this patriotic lens, it seems like some types trafficking is okay. But then you remember that John Adams had a dog named Satan and George Washington used slaves’ teeth as his own and you realize nobody is perfect and this is a complicated issue indeed.